Netball: Magic working on venue for home final

With the top spot all but in the bag, Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic could also have found a solution to finding a venue for the National Bank Cup netball final.

Netball New Zealand requires that any venue for semifinals and the final have a capacity of at least 2500, and with the Mystery Creek Event Centre booked for the Fieldays it appeared the Magic would have to cede the home advantage should they make the final.

However, Magic chief executive Sheryl Dawson said she was confident Tauranga's Queen Elizabeth II Youth Centre could be rejigged to meet the magic figure.

"I'm very hopeful," she said.

"We have met this morning with the (Tauranga City) council and their engineer is drawing up the plan and once he comes back we will take it to the Fire Service for their sign-off."

Dawson said an idea for reconfiguring the stands had come from discussions with Mystery Creek Event Centre manager Barry Quayle.

The Tauranga stadium's maximum capacity is normally about 2100 but she believed they would be able to accommodate the extra 400 seats.

"We are confident but the team has to get to the final first," she said.

The Magic lead the competition by three points and play their final round-robin game against the winless Capital Shakers on Friday.

They are all but guaranteed top spot and would even retain it if they had a close loss against the Shakers.

That would give them home advantage for the major semifinal between the first and second-placed sides which can be played at Mystery Creek.

The winner of that game advances to the final with the home advantage.

The loser plays the winner of the game between third and fourth for the remaining final spot.

Dawson expects to know by the end of the week whether it will be feasible to fit 2500 spectators into Queen Elizabeth II Youth Centre using the reconfigured stands.

- nzpa